He stiffened his shoulders. Which Kylie had to admit were pretty broad. The guy was cute. Why wasn't Della at least being nice?
"Why do you like Mr. Yates?" Steve asked. "His sexy body, or do you pretend it's his mind?"
Damn, Kylie thought. These two were as bad as Della and Miranda. Or Burnett and Holiday.
Della scowled at Steve and then looked at Kylie. "I'm out of here."
Embarrassed, Kylie looked at Steve. "Thanks. Can you tell Lucas that I came by?"
"You could probably find him." Steve stood up. "I think they were going down to the clearing by the stream."
"Oh," Kylie said, and took off after Della. Kylie's chest pinched with jealousy as she remembered her and Lucas going to the stream. She was so fixated on trying not to feel the green emotion ping-ponging in her heart, she hadn't realized they were heading the wrong way.
"Where are we going?" Kylie asked.
Della glared at her. "To the stream, idiot. And don't for one minute pretend that you don't want to know what he's doing down there with that she-wolf. If he was my boyfriend, I'd go grab him by the scruff of his neck and teach that wolf a lesson he wouldn't forget. He'd be whimpering like a pup before I let him go."
* * *
Kylie continued to follow Della while holding an out-and-out debate in her head over the wisdom of continuing or turning around. If she went to the stream, would Lucas think she'd come because she was jealous? But if she didn't go and Steve told him she'd dropped by and hadn't come, would he think she'd gone home because she was jealous?
Okay, the only thing that came out of that mental debate was knowing that she didn't want Lucas to think she was jealous.
Even though she was.
But did that mean she was wrong?
Or was Lucas wrong? Wrong for taking off in the dark to spend some time with Fredericka by the creek? Was he right now rolling on the grass with Fredericka, kissing her the way he'd kissed Kylie when he'd taken her to the creek?
Or was it as innocent as her getting caught behind the office with Derek?
Kylie looked up at the moon. The glow seemed extra bright and she felt that odd sting on her skin. Just like she felt on the full moon.
She inhaled deeply and told herself she was imagining things.
"Quit trying to talk yourself out of going," Della said.
"How do you know that's what I'm doing?"
"Because I can see it on your face. And because you couldn't walk any slower if you were a turtle on crutches."
"I just don't want to come off like a psycho girlfriend."
"If he's making out with her-or worse, playing hide the salami-then he deserves you coming off like a psycho. Hell, I'll join you and we'll both go psycho on his ass."
"I don't think he's doing that." As if saying it helped her believe it.
"You didn't want to think Derek did it, either." Della sighed as if she regretted saying the words. "No disrespect to Ellie and all, but it was still wrong."
Kylie's chest tightened at the mention of Ellie's name. "That was different."
"How is it different?" Della asked. A low-hanging limb swung back and Kylie caught it with her arm with complete ease. "I think it adds up to the fact that all guys are scum. Maybe we weren't even supposed to mate with them."
"Derek and I weren't together."
"Maybe you hadn't said you were together. But in your heart, you were together."
Kylie remembered what Miranda had said about her talking about Derek more than she did Lucas. Suddenly she didn't want to talk about her screwed-up love life. So why not talk about Della's screwed-up love life? It seemed like the perfect diversion.
"You could have been nicer to Steve."
Della swung around, attitude in her body posture. "I was nice."
"No, you weren't. You accused him of liking the new teacher's tits."
Della resumed walking. "You should have seen him ogling her, it was embarrassing."
"It kind of sounds like you're jealous, which says you like the guy," Kylie pointed out.
Della started walking faster, her pace matching her mood. "I don't like him. But I'll admit he has a nice butt."
"And you said you were going to try to be more approachable to his nice butt," Kylie reminded her.
"I tried. It didn't work out. I guess his butt isn't that nice."
Another branch came back, and the instant Kylie caught it in her palm, she remembered. She stopped and looked up through the trees at the sky. A few stars twinkled back as if laughing at her.
"Crap," she muttered.
"What?" Della looked back over her shoulder.
Kylie glanced around. The moon's glow cast a silver shine through the trees and shadows danced on ground.
"I just remembered."
"Remembered what?"
"I'm not supposed to go into the woods." Kylie inhaled the verdant scent of the trees and the moist earth. Then she internally searched for that feeling of being lured, beckoned as she had been earlier. It wasn't there. So maybe all those feelings were just her overactive imagination. Oh, yeah, she wanted to believe that.
Nevertheless, she'd disobeyed Burnett's orders. Maybe not on purpose, but she didn't think he'd find that excuse acceptable. "We should go back."
"But we're almost there. And you've got me-a badass vampire-with you. Nothing's going to happen. And don't you want to know if Lucas and Fredericka are doing the hokey pokey?"
Kylie caught another branch coming back at her. "If Burnett finds out, he's going to be pissed."
"Then we won't tell him. Trust me. It's gonna be fine."
Against her better judgment, Kylie continued taking steps with Della. The crickets did their thing and an occasional bird called out. In the background, Kylie could even hear the sounds of the wild animals in the park. Normally when the night sang, it meant all was well. It was in the quiet that things jumped out of the shadows. When evil seemed to appear.
Inhaling the night air, she continued moving, jumping over a few patches of thorny bushes and ducking under low branches.
"Crap," Della hissed, and came to an abrupt stop.
"What is it?" Kylie asked, and that was when the forest went silent. Not dead like in ghost silent, but dead like in threatening.